"Students Have Rights Too": RRR for Wendy Kaminer

      In Wendy Kaminer's essay "The War on High Schools," (1999), Kaminer claims that public schools were once less strict to students challenging the norm; however, public schools are now stripping students of their first amendment rights and treating students as if they are "criminal suspects"(Kaminer 1999). She supports her claim with court cases, statistics, and examples. Kaminer's purpose is to inform readers of the issue at hand in order to encourage improvement in the treatment of students in public school systems. Her intended audiences for this writing are readers of "The American Prospect," school administrators, and judges who handle civil cases involving public schools.
      As I read Kaminer's essay, I thought about the way things are set up in my high school. I thought about how every day I step foot into school, I walk through a metal detector, or an officer is there to search my bag. I thought about how I can quickly get suspended for wearing ripped jeans or being out of uniform. I thought about how something as simple as an Instagram or Twitter post can end up costing me my education. After reading Kaminer's essay, I realize that my school system has taken away my rights, my freedoms, and my voice. I agree that public school systems treat us as if we are "criminal suspects" (Kaminer 1999). Speaking out and challenging this new norm can cost us an education that we worked hard for; we are often ignored and silenced for our attempts for change. It is refreshing for someone else to acknowledge the repression that students are subject to.
        Kaminer primarily uses logos to support her claims. She initially explains that when she was in high school, breaking the rules did not come with harsh consequences. She states, "High school gave me my first lessons in bureaucracy: Rules were meant to be rigidly applied, not questioned; power was meant to be abused by petty functionaries" (Kaminer 1999). She also states, "I regularly got into trouble for insubordination, but I was never suspended, much less expelled. It was the mid-1960s, a time of protest, not zero tolerance, and there was no clear rule that prohibited challenging or even insulting teachers and administrators" (Kaminer 1999). Kaminer goes on to explain how times have changed and that students are subject to more harsh punishments. For example, she expresses how a student was suspended for dying his hair blue and how another student was suspended for wearing a pro-vegan shirt (Kaminer 1999). She also uses several court cases as examples of how public school systems deny students their rights. She uses an incident in Georgia where elementary students were strip searched by administrators and student resource officers in pursuit of "a missing $26" (Kaminer 1999). The example shows how the school system violated the elementary students' right to privacy. Kaminer also states that "In 1995 the Supreme Court upheld random drug testing for student athletes" (Kaminer 1999). She uses a statement made by a high school student about drug testing at their school to express students feelings about the court ruling. The student states, "This policy gives all kinds of people access to my private information when there isn’t even any reason to think I’m doing drugs" (Kaminer 1999). She sets up the essay by introducing us to the way things were when she was in high school which leads into how public schools have changed over time; evolving into "zero-tolerance" institutes (Kaminer 1999). She uses examples such as court cases to support her claims with a logical appeal.

-Nianicole Wedlowe 9/9/17

Citations:

• Wendy Kaminer. “The War on High Schools.” The American Prospect, November 2001 http:/   /www.prospect.org. The American Prospect, 1710 Rhode Island Avenue, NW, 12th Floor, Washington, DC 20036. All rights reserved.
• https://www.odt.co.nz/sites/default/files/story/2016/04/more_than_800_otago_girls_high_school_pupils_form__2017229338.jpg